Shooting garment



March 3, 1964 1-1. 0. SMITH 3,122,753

SHOOTING GARMENT Filed Feb. 11, 1965 inventor" Howard 0. Smfl'h wmwUnited States Patent 3,122,753 SHOOTWG GARMENT Howard 0. Smith, 1535 E.33rd St., Des Moines, Iowa Filed Feb. 11, 1963, Ser. No. 261,928 2Claims. (Ci. 294) This invention relates to a shooting coat and moreparticularly to one used in shooting rifles.

The present application is a continuation-in-part of my pendingapplication, Serial No. 739,720, filed June 4, 1958, now abandoned, forShooting Garment.

The use of the arm padded shooting coat in rifle shooting is old. Anillustration of such garment may be found in applicants issued PatentNo. 2,493,370 under date of January 3, 1950. Vfhile such garments areexcellent and necessary for rifle shooting they do have certainobjections, i.e., the sleeve padding makes the garment most cumbersomeand prevents freedom of arm action. Also, the rather rigid sleeves donot lend themselves to the form fitting of the arm of the user. Whilesnugness is most desirable in the sleeve around the arm of the shooter,it is obvious that if the sleeve were made to conform to the muscle ofthe arm, the arm of the user would be prevented from bending during theshooting phase.

Therefore, one of the principal objects of my invention is to provide ashooting coat not only with sleeves that diametrically conform to theoutline of the arm of the shooter but which permit maximum freedom ofmovement of the arm of the user of the coat.

More specifically, the object of this invention is to provide a shootingcoat that has sleeves having a section of flexible resilient material topermit the freedom of arm movement even though a substantial portion ofthe sleeve or sleeves is padded.

A still further object of this invention is to provide a shooting coathaving elongated longitudinal strips of flexible resilient material inat least one of the sleeves with the flexible resilient material soplaced as not to interfere with the gun sling of the rifle.

A still further object of this invention is to provide a shootinggarment that permits the expanding and contracting of the diameter ofthe sleeve.

It is still a further object of this invention to provide a shootinggarment that prevents the upward telescoping or folding of the sleevetowards the main body member of the garment.

A still further object of my invention is to provide a shooting garmentthat is economical to manufacture, durable in use and refined inappearance.

These and other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

My invention consists in the construction, arrangement, and combination,or the various parts of the device, whereby the objects contemplated areattained as hereinafter more fully set forth, specifically pointed outin my claims, and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a front view of my garment ready for use,

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged cross-section of the sleeve of the garment incontracted condition and is taken on line 2-2 of FTGURE 1, and,

FIGURE 3 is an enlarged cross-section of the sleeve of my shootinggarment similar to that of FIGURE 2 except that it shows the sleeve inexpanded condition.

Shooting garments, because they are intended to provide comfort to theshooter and increase the shooting accuracy have various pad elements.These pads are to be found at the elbow of each sleeve, a gun sling pad,and a gun butt pad adjacent to the shoulder of the garment. In thedrawings 1 have used the numeral 1 5 to designate 3,122,753 PatentedMar. 3, 1964 the body portion of my shooting garment. The numerals 11and 12 are used to designate the two sleeves of the garment. The elbowpad element on each sleeve is designated by numeral 13. The arcuate gunsling pad is designated by numeral 14. The sleeves 11 and 12 aredepicted in their normal wearing positions and because of the heavymaterial thereof, and because of pads 13 and 14, the sleeves are neverrolled upwardly but are worn as shown in FIGURE 1. The numeral 15designates the gun butt pad. Most such shooting garments have a cuffposition 16 as shown in the drawings. The portion and elements of mygarment thus described are common and well known. My present invention,however, is not the making of such a coat but the insertion of a stripor panel of elongated flexible resilient material 17 in each sleeve. Thebody portion 10, sleeves 11 and 12, and cuffs 16 are of relatively stiffmaterial as contrasted by the material of panel 17. This elongated panelof flexible resilient material may be of any suitable character such asrubber, elastic or the like providing it expands and contracts. Thepanel 17 of flexible and resilient material extends longitudinally fromthe shoulder seam to the cuff as shown in FIGURE 1. While this insertedpanel 17 may be placed at various points around the diameter of theshoulder, it operates best when at the inner upper side of the sleeve soas not to seriously interfere with any pad elements. Furthermore, theshortest part of the sleeve while in use is at the upper side of the armof the user. The user will when using a gun sling have the slingcontacting the major portion of the rear of the sleeve and not the frontof the sleeve, making possible any lapping of the sleeve at the forwardportion and in this case the section of overlapping will be accomplishedby the flexible resilient panel 17.

In most instances, the contraction of the sleeve by insertion of theflexible resilient portion will eliminate unde sirable overlapping ofportions of the sleeve as shown in FIGURE 2. This makes for the comfortof the user and also holds the sleeve taut against the arm of the oneusing the coat. Whenever it is necessary to increase the diameter of thesleeve to permit the bending of the arm or the flexing of the armmuscle, the flexible panel will permit such expansion as shown in FIGURE3.

It will be noted that the panel 17 is surrounded by material of astiffer texture which serves to stabilize the panel. This phenomenon isimportant for the sleeve 12 is subjected to severe twisting andcompression at times, depending on the type of sling used. Also, thestiffer material in the sleeve surrounding the panel serves to normallyhold the sleeve in an elongated condition and prevents the upwardtelescoping or folding thereof towards the body member 10.

Thus, from the foregoing, it is seen that my invention will accomplishat least all of its stated objectives.

Some changes may be made in the construction and arrangement of myshooting garment without departing from the real spirit and purpose ofmy invention, and it is my intention to cover by my claims, any modifiedforms of structure or use of mechanical equivalents which may bereasonably included within their scope.

I claim:

1. 'In a shooting garment,

a body member having a shoulder portion,

a sleeve secured to the shoulder portion of said body member andextending downwardly therefrom,

said sleeve including a cult on the lower end thereof,

and an elongated resilient panel extending along the inner side of saidsleeve adjacent said body member from said cult to the point ofconnection between said sleeve and said body member, at least one'arcuate pad element secured to said sleev and extending partiallyaround said sleeve in spaced relation to said panel;

said cuff and said sleeve, except for said panel, being comprised of asubstantially stiff non-resilient ma- 'terial.

2. The garment of claim 1 wherein the material of said sleeve, exceptfor said panel, and the, pad element on said sleeve, normally hold saidsleeve in an elongated condition and prevent the upward telescoping orfolding thereoftowards said body member. 4

Referenees (Iited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS SmithDec. 8,

Smith Ian. 3,

Geiss June 24,

Tames Aug. 12,

FOREIGN PATENTS France Dec. 23,

Germany Nov. 13,

1. IN A SHOOTING GARMENT, A BODY MEMBER HAVING A SHOULDER PORTION, ASLEEVE SECURED TO THE SHOULDER PORTION OF SAID BODY MEMBER AND EXTENDINGDOWNWARDLY THEREFROM, SAID SLEEVE INCLUDING A CUFF ON THE LOWER ENDTHEREOF, AND AN ELONGATED RESILIENT PANEL EXTENDING ALONG THE INNER SIDEOF SAID SLEEVE ADJACENT SAID BODY MEMBER FROM SAID CUFF TO THE POINT OFCONNECTION BETWEEN SAID SLEEVE AND SAID BODY MEMBER, AT LEAST ONEARCUATE PAD ELEMENT SECURED TO SAID SLEEVE AND EXTENDING PARTIALLYAROUND SAID SLEEVE IN SPACED RELATION TO SAID PANEL;